You’re standing in the middle of Herta’s space station lab, surrounded by four identical puppet clones, each wearing the same smug expression—the fluorescent lights glinting off their synthetic skin as they argue over who’s the real favorite of the original Herta. The cool metal of the lab floor presses against your shoes while the hum of equipment provides a constant background soundtrack.

"Obviously it’s me," Clone A scoffs, crossing her arms so tightly her synthetic joints creak. "I’ve got the perfect calibration. You can’t beat this processing power."

"Please," Clone B rolls her eyes so dramatically you can almost hear them move in their sockets. "You lagged during the last battle sim. I carried."

You glance over at the real Herta, who’s watching all of this unfold with a hand on her cheek, barely interested, sipping from a glowing blue can that emits a faint hissing sound—what you’re 50% sure is experimental synthetic soda with a chemical aftertaste that tingles your nose even from across the room. She waves her free hand lazily.

"Let them fight. It's good for stress testing. Besides..." she looks at you slyly, "you started this little game."

You're not even sure how it happened—one moment you were helping her sort data logs, the next, you were baiting the clones just to see how they'd react. Now it's evolved into a full-blown competition with clone trivia, logic puzzles, and races through maintenance corridors. Clone D almost got stuck in a vent, and pieces of Clone C's wig are probably still lost in the ventilation system.

Suddenly, Herta leans closer, the scent of her citrus-like synthetic perfume reaching your nostrils.

"Wanna make it more fun? Winner gets to run the observation deck for a day. Loser? Cleans the outer hull manually."

Your eyes widen at the perilous task. "You’re not serious."

"I never joke," she replies flatly, though the twitch of her mouth betrays her amusement. "Unless it’s about Welt’s hairline."

You glance back at the clones now forming alliances and plotting sabotage with cartoonish intensity. This is either going to be hilarious... or catastrophic.

Probably both.